Fighting to repay student loan

Website doesn't record transactions

When Kristi Mercer first switched to online payments for student loans, she didn't expect a six-month battle.

But that's what she got, as $3,000 of her money entered the system and seemingly evaporated.

She said she's spoken with representatives of the federal education department more than 24 times to find out what happened to the money. She isn't alone.

"It keeps growing into more of a mess," she said.

In October, the U.S. Department of Education switched to a new website for online student loan payments, www.myedaccount.com.

On Oct. 12, a blog post by a department representative, "ED Working to Resolve Problems with Direct Loan Website," began receiving many complaints, which continued into February and reached 719.

The department did not return multiple phone calls for comment made over the last week from the Record Searchlight. Representatives with the private company that's affiliated with the website did not return requests for comment.

But, he said his department doesn't handle repayment of student loans beyond educating college students about their rules and responsibilities.

Many of those who posted to the blog cited interest problems and fluctuating account values.

Others, including Mercer, found their payments were not being posted.

She's paying back around $60,000 in PLUS loans, which a parent borrows to pay for a child's college education. She said one of her daughters attended California State University, Humboldt, and another attended California State University, Chico.

She said she's been paying the loans back for three years and didn't have any problem until she began using the website. The site accepted the payments and took the money out of her account, but didn't apply the money to her debt.

Instead, she has to call each month to keep the account from going into arrears, she said.

"They acknowledge they have my money," she said.

Mercer said representatives told her a massive backlog on the website was causing the problems, giving her 50 business days until it's fixed — then 60. Then, she said, they stopped giving her estimates.

"It's been five months and they haven't caught up yet," she said.

The problem likely stems from two-year-old legislation, David said. He said universities used to choose to finance student debt either through federal or private loans.

But as part of student loan reform, the federal government began financing all student loans, he said. Some of the former lenders took positions as private contractors managing the loans, he said.

"They're trying to consolidate all the different loans. It's a huge volume to try to coordinate," he said. "If you put too much water into a dam or pipe, it's going to slow it down or burst."

Mercer said she's called 24 times. A service representative promised a follow-up letter would be sent within 10 days to explain the issue.

Twenty days later, the hadn't arrived, she said.

Eventually, it became impossible to reach anyone during the day, Mercer said, and she resorted to calling around 6 a.m. to ensure she got through. The website still wasn't applying her payments.

"If this were a business they would have been sued," she said.

David said the Department of Education has contracted six centers around the country devoted to handling loan payments.

Mercer said she thinks that privatizing the process gummed up the works. David said that while the financial aid offices at schools don't handle student loan repayments, they can help people who are struggling to reach the Department of Education.

Mercer said she spoke with the Internal Revenue Service about how her taxes would be affected, and that agency directed her to a volunteer ombudsman.

Mercer said the ombudsman has been helping her during March, she said. On Friday, the ombudsman called her and said the problem has been taken care of.

But earlier the same week, she'd run into trouble trying to take care of another missing payment.

"I called again on Tuesday, my day off. The first time I waited on hold," she said. After a representative picked up, he put her on hold. "After another five minutes, he hung up on me. I called back, when they answered the phone, they hung up on me.